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Stores Shut in Protest as New Strife Grips Syria

BEIRUT, Lebanon — As Syrian government forces pressed their counteroffensive on the outskirts of Damascus and a car bomb exploded in the central city of Homs, merchants around the country closed their shops over the weekend in response to a call for peaceful protest, suggesting that the civil disobedience movement, though overshadowed lately by intense fighting, still has the ability to mobilize Syrians.

On Saturday, usually a busy shopping day, rows of shops were closed in towns north and south of Damascus, the capital; in the southern city of Dara’a; in Hama in the north; and along major streets in Raqqa, an eastern city, video uploaded to the Web by government opponents showed.

The protest took place despite more than two days of Internet failures that slowed the spread of the call for action. Called the “Strike of Pride,” it was announced on Facebook and other social media sites beginning a week ago, as well as by activists who dropped leaflets and spray-painted the news on walls.

An organizer wrote in one announcement that although some have questioned the effectiveness of the nonviolent struggle, “I think it can express the pain of the entire Syrian people.”

Yet violence continued, with a car bomb exploding on Sunday in Homs, killing 15 people and wounding 24, according to the government news agency, SANA. Activists said that seven people were confirmed dead, and that the number could rise because some were critically wounded.

Activists and residents said the bombing took place in the Malaab neighborhood, which was considered one of the few safe places to go outside and to shop.

Residents had turned the area into an outdoor market, and there was a supermarket near the bomb site. Residents said civilians were wounded. Video of the scene showed men shouting and bringing in a fire extinguisher as thick black smoke and flames billowed from a car on a narrow street lined with apartment buildings and bougainvillea bushes.

Such bombings have divided the antigovernment movement since Syria’s 20-month uprising evolved into a civil war that has killed an estimated 40,000 people.

What began as a peaceful protest movement turned violent after the government fired on unarmed demonstrators. Some fighters said they carry weapons to protect protesters; army defections have followed suit. As jihadi groups have taken a more prominent role in the conflict, car bombs have proliferated.

At first, they targeted government buildings. Bombings have increased in residential areas. They appear to be meant for members of minority sects who have been less involved in the Sunni-led uprising — such as in Jaramana, south of Damascus, last week, and last month in Mezze 86, a neighborhood that is home to many military families and Alawites.

The fighting — and its increasingly sectarian cast — has divided the activists who spearheaded the early civil disobedience. Many activists support the rebels while criticizing what they see as excesses.

Photo

A 7-month-old girl was buried in Ramtha, Jordan, on Sunday. Syrian refugees said that the girl had been killed during fighting in the Syrian city of Dara’a.Credit
Mohammad Hannon/Associated Press

The call to join this weekend’s protest urged Syrians to unite against “the killing machine” of the government and to show the unity of “those seeking to stop the killing and destruction.”

It exhorted people of various professions to join the protest.

“Dear trader, dear industrial worker,” the notices said, “proclaim loud in the face of the tyrant that one drop of blood from a Syrian father is more dear to you than evanescent money. Dear driver, show your refusal to stand for hours just to get fuel and cross checkpoints.”

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The announcement said the protest was supported by the Free Syrian Army, the loose-knit rebel umbrella group, as well as civil society groups.

The videos provided scattered evidence of the shop closings, and in some areas, shops are often closed because of fighting. So it was hard to gauge the protest’s scope. In several towns, shops were closed in areas where the streets were shown to be full of people out for Saturday strolls, and a few street stalls sold kerosene and other items — suggesting that the closings were part of the protests and not due to fighting or fear of violence. In other areas, shopping districts were nearly abandoned.

In Hama, block after block of shops were closed behind corrugated metal gates. On wide streets, in narrow alleys and in a covered market it was so quiet that the footsteps of the videographer echoed off the walls. Birds could be heard, too. Another video showed men in camouflage uniforms standing outside shops as gunshots echoed nearby; a description posted online said the men were “regime thugs” breaking the locks of shops to end the strike, a tactic that pro-government militias have used before.

In Raqqa, where the fighting has not been as intense as elsewhere, video taken from a car showed shops closed along both sides of a major street named for a coup on Feb. 23, 1966, by a faction of the Baath Party that would later be led by the Assad family. Shops appeared closed even near the town’s central square, with its distinctive clock tower.

One video said to be taken in Hajar al-Aswad, a suburb south of Damascus where fighting has raged for the past week, showed a woman and two men strolling down a quiet street of closed shops and dropping handfuls of white leaflets.

On Sunday, a funeral service was held for three Syrians, including a 7-month-old girl, in Ramtha, Jordan, near the border. Reuters reported that other Syrian refugees said that the three had been killed in an attack in the Tafas neighborhood of Dara’a.

Government forces continued to attack rebels on Sunday, supported by helicopter gunships and airstrikes to the south and east of the capital in an apparent effort to push back rebels who had made gains in the area in recent days.

“The Syrian Army has opened since Thursday morning the gates of hell to all those who even consider getting close to Damascus or of attacking the capital,” the pro-government newspaper Al Watan reported, according to Agence France-Presse.

A version of this article appears in print on December 3, 2012, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Stores Shut In Protest As New Strife Grips Syria. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe